Saugeen Ojibway Nation (SON) in southern Ontario has released a report that says there is no evidence to support Métis rights claims in their traditional territory.
The report by two Toronto-based academics looking at the claims to Aboriginal rights in SON territory by the Métis Nation of Ontario-affiliated Georgian Bay Métis Community and another group was commissioned by SON in 2023 and released Thursday.
Saugeen Ojibway Nation comprises Saugeen First Nation and Chippewas of Nawash Unceded First Nation, and their traditional territory encompasses the Bruce (Saugeen) Peninsula and about 600,000 hectares south of it.
Theron Solomon, a councillor from Chippewas of Nawash, said the report isn’t about “identity politics.”
“This isn’t us telling others that you can’t identify as Métis,” Solomon said.
“This is about the rights within our traditional territory.”
The Supreme Court of Canada’s 2003 Powley decision recognized a Métis community in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., and laid out criteria for rights recognition of Métis communities. One is that a historic Métis community had to be identifiable in the territory in question prior to the establishment of the Crown’s control.
The Georgian Bay Métis Community is among six additional Métis communities identified by the Métis Nation of Ontario and the province of Ontario in 2017. According to the SON report, though the community is based in Penetanguishene, Ont., the harvesting area it claims encompasses SON territory.
The report says that while some Métis in the SON area could demonstrate a connection to a First Nations ancestor or ancestors in the fur trade, they moved in after the Crown established control there and there was no evidence of a historic distinct Métis community.
“These families all arrived after the Crown established effective control, as part of colonization of SON’s territory,” the report said.
Claims cause harm, says chief
Saugeen First Nation Councillor Randall Kahgee said the MNO’s claims and those of another group called Historic Saugeen Métis to rights on their territory are “borderline offensive.”
“They’ve been gradually getting bolder and bolder,” Kahgee said.
“Certainly the province’s unilateral recognition of these seven regions without any kind of historical evidence at all to support or substantiate that, without any consultation with First Nations who might be impacted by that, were certainly driving factors behind that.”
Ogimaa (Chief) Greg Nadjiwon of Chippewas of Nawash First Nation said governments and organizations that give credibility to the claims cause harm by diverting resources meant for First Nations.
“Living in a place is not the same thing as being Indigenous to a place,” he said.
“The evidence is crystal clear. We call on Canada and Ontario to stop enabling these groups and instead start negotiating with SON to protect our long-established rights.”
The report, authored by Heidi Bohaker, a professor of history at the University of Toronto, and Chandra Murdoch, a post-doctoral fellow at Osgoode Hall Law School in Toronto, says the Crown established control between 1836 and early 1842 in Owen Sound, signing Treaty 45½ â also known as the Saugeen Tract Purchase â in 1836.
By early 1842, the Crown began surveying the town and promoting European settlement.
“Because of the rapidity by which the Crown seized effective control of SON’s territory ⦠there was neither a time nor a place for a distinct Métis community to develop on SON territory before effective European control,” according to the report.
“To be sure, there were mixed-ancestry individuals present in the region, but ⦠prior to the signing of treaties, those individuals were either part of SON itself or they were traders â¦. tied to settler trade networks.”
The report says only four mixed ancestry families recognized by the MNO as Georgian Bay Métis have a connection to SON territory.
Community’s existence ‘not up for debate,’ says MNO
The report from SON comes on the heels of a Métis National Council panel report that affirmed the Métis Nation Ontario’s six new communities meet MNC’s national definition for Métis citizenship.
According to that report, the Georgian Bay Historic Métis Community originated from the Historic Sault Ste. Marie Métis Community and “has a long and important history along the St. Marys River, between lakes Huron and Superior. The connections between this community and others in the Upper Great Lakes is indisputable.”
In a statement, the MNO said while it respects the Saugeen Ojibway Nation’s rights, history and responsibilities to its territory, the existence of the Georgian Bay Métis Community “is not up for debate.”
“It is an indivisible part of the Upper Great Lakes Métis acknowledged by the Supreme Court of Canada in R v. Powley,” the statement said.
A historic Métis community at Penetanguishene has been well-documented, the statement said.
“The MNO invites Saugeen Ojibway Nation’s leadership to engage directly with the MNO and its leadership on these matters to address any misconceptions or misunderstandings about the MNO and the Métis communities it represents.”
